MOGADISHU, Somalia â€“ Officials say a Somali national tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month with powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that together could have caused an explosion. The hallmarks bear chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.

Police spokesman Abdulahi Hassan Barise says the suspect was arrested before the Nov. 13Â Daallo Airlines flight departed. It was scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northernÂ Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai.

Two international officials inÂ Nairobi said Wednesday the incident is similar to the Detroit attack in that the Somali man had a syringe, a bag of powdered chemicals and liquid. U.S. officials are aware of the incident and hastening to investigate any possible links with the Detroit attack.

This is plainly unacceptable. A third world nation in the throws of an Islamist uprising is able to detect and stop the same basic bomb plot while America and the EU failed miserably to connect the dots.

After all the crap President Bush received after 9-11 by the lunatic ‘truthers’, about how the signs leading to 9-11 were so obvious (but they weren’t), the Democrats have no excuses and no right to call ‘foul’ when Americans question their competence to keep us safe. It is just one more piece of evidence in a a growing case of criminal negligence that is coming to light regarding Flight 253.